Vidharba Package: A Package For More Suicides

When the farmers of Vidharba sowed the new cotton seeds of Multinational company Monsanto, marketed in Maharashtra under the brand name of the government owned Mahyco, they had dreamt of making good profits. They only made losses and incurred big debts which they found impossible to repay. Their families were left to deal with their corpses.

The farmers of entire areas, nay, districts, have been left ruined by their failed crop. These are relatively richer and middle sections of farmers who were lured into high investments with promises of high returns. Reasons? The seeds have been unproductive. Irrigation has been meagre. The crop has been diseased. The produce has been insufficient or of low quality. The produce has not sold in the market at the expected prices due to heavy imports. The farmers had been forced to take heavy loans - from government agencies as well as and mainly from private traders and moneylenders, which obviously they could not repay. Their lands have been taken over or are in that process. They have lost their means of livelihood and continue to remain indebted, facing the wrath and humiliation of moneylenders and govt officials. The fact that so many have been affected, and in such large areas of the country proves that it is a manifestation of the policies of the government. The 'saviours' have been visiting the area with 'relief packages'.

Just to note the background, most of the cotton trade in the world is controlled by US companies which receive a massive subsidy of 4 billion dollars (Rs. 19,000 crores) from their government and can easily outsell any competitor. Walkout by African countries in 2002 in the Doha WTO talks pertained mainly to US monopoly over cotton trade.

Its not just the cotton trade. Cotton is one reason, the main one. The whole question is about 'Policy' versus 'Package'. The two won't work against each other. If the government policy is not to take up the responsibility to safeguard and develop agriculture, peasants' income, internal market and food security of the country, the packages won't give relief to the farmers. WTO and the World Bank are against such relief to farmers of third world countries. The comprador rulers are only crossing the t's and dotting the i's.

It was one thing to leave the farmers to the mercy of the giant corrupt MNCs and their native partners who make huge profits by selling substandard, untested material and have left it to the poor and insecure Indian farmers to bear the loss. This has been the general problem with MNC seeds all over the country. Their monopoly over the market does not leave the farmers with any alternative. Specific to Vidharba has been the problem of cheap cotton imports. The government has reduced import duty on cotton to only 10%. The farmers' demand for increase in cotton import duty was heard by the entire country, but not by Manmohan Singh, Pawar, Deshmukh and their supporters, the CPM and CPI.

The government's thrust was more on irrigation and on shedding crocodile tears on the corpses. Irrigation in the entire Deccan plateau has been served by tanks, ponds and open dug wells which require regular maintenance. These have been the main casualties of the govt. drive to withdraw from infrastructure expenditure and encourage private investments. Private investments need big projects with big returns. They have little interest in these plans which require small and regular expenditure. Large rain fed areas have become arid. Agriculture has collapsed and people have started fleeing to find employment elsewhere. The major package announced has been to revitalise irrigation and this money is not for regular maintenance of the tanks and ponds, but for major and medium projects lying incomplete.

Of special importance is the project to develop sprinkler and drip irrigation, a method that has been used in dry deserts and sandy soil which does not retain water. There are serious doubts about its efficacy in rain fed areas. It needs a large network of pipes and other equipment. Moreover it does not use less water. In rain fed areas its only advantage is that it is labour saving. Where cheap labour is not in shortage, for obvious reasons it has not found favour with our farmers.

On the other major issue of waiving of loans and relief from private money lenders too the government has made no move to help the farmers. The details tell the complete story.

What did the farmers of Vidharba tell India's CEO?

One educated well to do farmer told the Prime Minister that "one reason for the suicides was the high cost economy built in the wake of reforms, followed by lower remuneration for the farmers resulting in death trap". He suggested that the government "waive all the loans upto Rs 25,000 per farmer, raise remunerative prices for local cotton, impose penal duties on imports, give export subsidy to local farmers and provide Rs. 1000  per acre incentive for alternative cropping".  It is obvious that it is not that farmers do not understand the source of the problems.

The National Commission on farmers had recommended that the Maharashtra government restart the 'advance bonus' of Rs 500 per quintal of cotton produced which was withdrawn in the year 2005.  This advance bonus used to add Rs 1000 crores to the cotton economy and some of this went to the farmers.

What had the team set up by the PM in March this year recommended?

It had recommeded higher procurement price, addressing the problem of loans from private lenders and land taken away from the farmers, free seeds for six districts for the Kharif sowing, fresh credit for the farmers and free and proper health care in the area. The reason attributed by this government team for the suicides is 'successive crop failure, poverty, mounting debts'.

What did the Prime Minister say on these issues during his visit?

He said that "Writing off loans can never be a long term solution". He also told the Waifad farmers that, "I am certain we can raise the import duty on agricultural produce within the WTO framework that allows us a bound rate at between 100% and 150%". He also stated that "merely depending on agriculutre for livelihood could be risky for the farming community and it was important to nurture their dairy business for supplementing their income." What is to be the fate of a country whose Prime Minister goes to address his farmers in distress and advises them to diversify as depending on agriculture is going to be risky? Atleast this much can be concluded then, that all the crisis is not due to unforeseen circumstances, but is part of the Prime Minster's plan.

What was the package given finally and whom will it help?

The package given was for Rs 3750 crores. Of this Rs 2177 crores was given for 82 major and 442 medium and some minor irrigation projects in 6 districts of Wardha, Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Washim for completion in 3 years. This is the major chunk of the package and has been drawn out entirely from the existing funds for these projects. These irrigation projects are the old projects lying incomplete mainly on account of nonavailibility of allotted funds. 93% land in these areas are dependent on traditional and natural irrigation. The backlog of funds for developmental projects in Vidharba is Rs 14,434 crores, around 82% of the allotted funds. Completion of these projects would add 1.59 lakh hectares of the 97.43 lakh hectares land of these 6 districts to the total irrigated land i.e. increase the irrigated land in these districts by less than 2% after 3 years. This will help the contractors  and companies who obtain the orders for completion of the project. Any help to farmers in the 2%  area it covers can only be evaluated at the end of 3 years.

Rs 87 crores has been  given for drip and sprinkler irrigation to cover 50,000 hectares (less than 0.5% of area affected). This will mainly help the companies which will be supplying the equipment. The benefits of these reliefs must be viewed in reference to the new law, Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act, enacted in April 2005 by the Maharastra assembly whereby irrigation will go under corporate control and charges will be levied so as to recover all costs. The new law also makes it legally binding on farmers to install drip irrigation equipment in notified areas if they wish to claim irrigation facility.

Rs 225 crores was given to develop horticulture under the National Horticulture Mission and is drawn from the funds earmarked for this. This is part of the programme asking farmers to diversify away from traditional food crops. It will certainly help the MNCs marketing agro products which are demanding crop diversification in India.

Rs 180 crores has been given for new cotton seed replacement. This will directly help Monsanto - Mahyco combination which has virtual monopoly over cotton seed supply.

Rs. 240 crores has been given for water harvesting, details of which are still to become public.

Rs. 135 crores has been given for cattle and fisheries. This is again part of the diversification and alternate income plan. Possibly this fund too will go to companies and agents supplying cattle feed.

Rs. 712 crores were announced in terms of debt relief. Out of this, only Rs 356 crores were cleared by the Cabinet by July end. This will help to clear the account books of the banks, which can then again go ahead with granting new loans, as they have been doing earlier. Most of these loans have been helping the middlemen and commission agents and have been strangulating the farmers.

Unrecovered loans worth Rs 1296 crores were rescheduled over 3 - 5 years. This will mean continuing recovery moves by the banks and tehsil officials, continuing harassment and humiliation of the farmers, continuing bribes for the officials and middlemen and ofcourse continuing suicides.

Rs 1275 crores worth of new loans have again been announced.

Rs 3 crores i.e. 50 lakhs per district in these six districts has been given from the PM's relief fund as a calamity relief measure for immediate help to the families of farmers. Also the Maharashtra relief package has been enhanced from Rs 1075 crores to Rs. 1300 crores. Not a penny from this was disbursed as the Commisioner in charge could not get down to his work due to other engagements.

Almost all the funds announced are from existing schemes which have been reallocated under this package. The net new announcement appears to be only Rs 3 crores which will be allocated on a case to case basis by the 'sensitive' officials.

A special rehabilitation package is to be announced for 31 districts in 4 states - 6 in Maharashtra, 16 in AP, 3 in Kerala and 6 in Karnataka. After more than 2 months, details are yet to be announced.

Suicides continue and more than 110 farmers have committed suicide since the Prime Minister's package.

What was not given?

The people had demanded increase in cotton import duties. That was not done. No MSP was given for cotton. No subsidy was announced to help export of cotton. Rs 500 per quintal 'advance bonus' was not restored.

People had demanded MSP for other crops, especially Jowar and Bajra, which are traditional and hardy crop and which also help to get good fodder for cattle. No such announcement was made. No incentive at all was announced for growing food crops which could help to sustain the food requirements of the area.

On the loans and interests, not a rupee was given to the farmers. No debt waiver. Earlier debts will continue to be recovered anew. No relief from the prevailing system of commission agents, middlemen and usury. Bank loans too are cornered by the landlords and used for private money lending business. Incidently one of the main middle men operating in this money lending racket is one Dilip Sananda, a Congress MLA close to Chief Minister Deshmukh. Numerous stories about his modus operandi and the security provided to him by the officials appeared in the press when the PM was on his 'suicide tour'. But not a statement was made to provide any relief from such sharks.

On irrigation it must be noted that irrigation from the new projects covers a very miniscule part of the agricultural land. Most of the irrigation has been dependent on tanks, open dug wells and other traditional methods which need maintenance. Any sanction for this could have benefitted 93% of the farmers. Not a penny has been sanctioned for this.

Money sanctioned for seeds has failed to address the problem of spurious seeds supplied by Monsanto - Mahyco and their agents.

What is the extent of the problem?

It is well known that suicides are being under reported. Some estimates have put total suicides in India by farmers at 1 lakh. Officially it has been declared that 1600 Vidharba farmers have committed suicide since January 2001. Of these 930 cases had been identified and 247 given compensation.

Though it has been claimed by officials that poverty is an important cause for suicides fact is that suicide corelation with poverty in cases of farmers' suicides is not direct. Infact most of the farmers committing suicides in India are those owning more than 2.5 acres of land. This means that they are mostly middle peasants and in some cases rich peasants.

Conclusions:

Is it a wonder that even sections of the bourgeios press have labelled these excursions by politicians as Suicide Tourism. The Prime Minister has taken no lessons from his post coronation AP Suicide Tour fiasco when after his relief announcements, the moneylenders went about abusing the widows of the farmers who had committted suicide. Suicides are continuing. They will increase. Unless of course organizations are able to make the farmers stand up against the nexus of feudal goondas, middlemen, commission agents, banks and the corporate world led by the MNCs. Unless the peasant organizations mobilize them against the Govts. serving the interests of the abovenamed exploiters. Farmers must organise to resist recovery of loans through mass militancy and force the government to announce loan waivers, MSPs for various crops and ban on free imports.